Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)

Introduction

Introduction

pons, such as exposing their hypocrisy, corruptness and incompetence. Unfortunately, we are convinced that the critical mass of Slovak voters perceives the problem in the following way: these guys may well be a bunch of corrupt thieves, too, but they at least defend our national interests. That is why we sincerely believe that the current situation cannot and will not improve in the long term without a massive information campaign exposing the actual status quo of ethnic and minority issues in Slovakia, which includes promoting multicultural education in schools and emphasizing intercultural dimension of the public service media’s performance.

Therefore, this publication features not only theoretical treatises but mostly analyses of such aspects of the issue that may be helpful when seeking practical measures aimed at generally improving interethnic relations in Slovakia. Although it focuses primarily on Slovak-Hungarian relations, only a fool fails to see that escalated tensions between the majority population and the Roma or - if we choose to make the forecast even trickier - immigrants and members of other cultures may cause much greater problems in the future. Before it happens, it is extremely important that Slovak and Hungarian democrats face the issue of their mutual relations like men because it will no doubt make them better equipped for tackling future challenges together.

Kálmán Petőcz

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